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Volume 3 Issue 2, February 2017

Weighting palms

Fruits of the palm Mauritia flexuosa are used as food by Amazonian cultures. Understanding which traits are linked to particular human needs reveals the processes that underpin ecosystem service realization.

Editorial

For millennia, Chinese knowledge of agriculture and crop breeding influenced the whole world. After an extended period of introspection, Chinese plant biology is once again establishing global eminence.

Features & comment

In 1916, Swedish geologist Ernst Jakob Lennart von Post delivered a provocative lecture in Oslo, Norway, advocating the use of pollen grains in bog sediments as indicators of past vegetation and climate. The lecture spawned many applications and represents a landmark in multidisciplinary science.

Kevin J. Edwards

, Ralph M. Fyfe

& Stephen T. Jackson

News & Views

Carnivory, the ability of plants to attract, catch, kill and digest insects to obtain nutrients, has evolved independently several times in plant evolution. A comprehensive analysis of the genome, transcriptome and proteome of prey digestion in a pitcher plant shows how carnivory in plants is the product of convergent evolution.

Research

Data from 2,201 interviews in 68 South American communities show that the use of palms (Arecaceae) is linked to function and geography. Plant size and location are stronger predictors of utilization for basic needs than less-basic ones, such as ritual uses.

Sown grassland mesocosms involving eight common plant species were provided different forms of phosphorus. Individual species used organic and inorganic phosphate differently, with their success relating to acquisition of a specific form of phosphorus.

Polarity establishment during the first zygote asymmetrical division is explored in the brown algae Dictyota. Through transcriptomics and cytological observations, the authors uncover a novel polarization process based on two steps that are controlled by different cues.

A Catharanthus roseus tonoplast-localized transporter has been identified and characterized to export strictosidine, the central intermediate of terpene and alkaloid biosynthesis pathways, from the vacuole to the cytosol.

Application of pathogen-specific double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was proposed as an approach against plant viruses. However, the instability of dsRNA hampers its application. Now, a study has used clay nanosheets to deliver dsRNA and obtain sustained protection against viruses.

The PsbS protein is essential in triggering non-photochemical quenching. Antibody pull-down assays show that a combination of ΔpH and zeaxanthin increases PsbS binding to specific minor proteins in the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II.